Game a week # 15

The Idea

I loved logic puzzled growing up. I especially had a fondness for Mindbenders and Osborne Puzzle books like Escape from Blood Castle. This week I flipped through one suck book and had the idea to make a video game based on a deductive reasoning puzzle. However, instead of just getting the clues from the start, I wanted to have the player explore the world a bit. I also wanted to stretch my art muscles a bit and decided I would draw some Edward Gorey-like characters.

What went right

I think the art came out pretty well. It has an Edward Gorey-esque style while still feeling distinct. I was also able to make a few systems that I’ll be reusing in the future. These system include a script that shows text letter by letter, a script that moves objects while fading them out, and a logic puzzle helper. I was also quite happy with the way the game turned out as a whole. I felt I got the experience across while being a fun game for logic puzzle lovers.

What went wrong

The art took forever to make. This is the same problem I ran into with the game Time Enough to Travel. As a result, I had to cut my vision back a bit and didn’t implement any cutscenes. I guess if I want cutscenes in the future I would either have to make another logic puzzle game (and focus on the cutscenes while reusing assets) or make a game around cutscenes. Because of the smaller scope I also ended up not using some art assets.Main character was cut due to lack of time.

What I learned

Cutscenes are hard. I wonder if I shouldn’t spend a week coding up a cutscene editor where I can drag an drop actions. I’m sure I’ll reuse it, and I might be better than handling cutscenes on a game per game basis.